culture
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Report: Civil Rights Charges Against George Zimmerman Unlikely, Officials Say
Because of a lack of evidence, the Department of Justice is unlikely to bring any civil rights charges against former Florida neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman for the death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, three law-enforcement officials have told the Washington Post. Accusations that Trayvon’s death was racially motivated were what prompted the DOJ to start…
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Jahi McMath’s Family Wants Teen Declared ‘Alive’
Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old Oakland, Calif., teen who became the center of a national debate last year regarding end-of-life decision-making after doctors declared her legally dead when her family believed otherwise, is reportedly showing signs of life. According to CBS San Francisco, Jahi’s family is petitioning the courts to have an Alameda County judge declare…
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Calif. Equalizes Prison Sentencing for Crack and Cocaine Drug Crimes
Attorney General Eric Holder is probably smiling at this news. Critics of the criminal-justice system often call on the federal government to fix the prison-sentencing disparities that exist between black and white defendants convicted of drug crimes, but last week California showed that states have the power to correct that kind of racial discrimination, too. According to…
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NFL Player Accused of Sexual Assault Investigated by Police
A day after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held a news conference to address the numerous accusations surrounding domestic violence and NFL players, the New York Daily News is reporting that a “Dallas Cowboys special-teams player was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at the team’s hotel in Texas” and was still allowed to play. According…
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Officials Investigating Ferguson Grand Jury for Misconduct
During a conversation on Twitter Wednesday, someone using the handle @thesusannichols claimed at 9:45 a.m. that the Ferguson, Mo., grand jury that is deciding whether to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown Aug. 9 didn’t have enough evidence to warrant an arrest. “I know someone sitting on the grand jury…
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This Is Not a Gun: So, Officers, Stop Shooting Unarmed Black Men
Too many black men have lost their lives because of encounters with police officers whose racially charged presumptions about what the men were holding in their hands informed their decision-making minutes before the men were gunned down. In fact, it’s what Jennifer L. Eberhardt, a Stanford psychologist and one of this year’s recipients of the…
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Jordan Davis Killer Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder
There is finally justice for 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the young man gunned down by Michael Dunn after a verbal dispute over loud music in a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station in November 2012. Dunn was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury of eight men and four women who deliberated just five-and-a-half hours. A different…
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NYC Man Helps Wife Regain Memory
Just weeks after their marriage, these Queens, N.Y., newlyweds faced a heartbreaking dilemma. CBS New York reports that Raleigh and Tunicia Hall were married on June 28. On July 30 Tunicia suffered a brain hemorrhage that erased her short-term memory. “She didn’t know what year she was in. After two days, I said, ‘I gotta…
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Fla. Officer Investigated for Using Taser on 62-Year-Old Woman
A Tallahassee, Fla., police officer is on administrative leave while the department’s Internal Affairs investigates his use of a stun gun on a 62-year-old woman on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. The incident prompted a Wednesday news conference by police Chief Michael DeLeo, who affirmed that Internal Affairs would look into it after a video…
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Black Artistic and Political Achievement Celebrated by Harvard’s Hutchins Center
On Tuesday evening the second annual Hutchins Center Honors attracted a coterie of political and cultural celebrities to Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. The recipients—Oprah Winfrey, Harvey Weinstein, Shonda Rhimes, Steve McQueen, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Harry Belafonte and British architect David Adjaye—represent some of the world’s leading figures in politics, culture and entertainment. The late Maya Angelou…